Background Art
Residential water recycling systems are old in the art and generally involve the reuse of wash water to be used to flush toilets.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,112,467 to Call and 4,162,218 to McCormick both disclose water reuse systems for recovering and collecting used shower, sink and bath water. The water is collected at the drain pipes of the shower, bath or sink and transferred to a storage tank where it is later used to flush a commode.
West German patent No. 2,336,744 to Reinke and West German patent No. 3,828,528 to Hasse disclose a water recovery system for recovering used bath or shower water for use when flushing a toilet. The system has a collection device plumbed in the drain pipe of the tub and transfers water by means of a suction pump to a storage tank and then upon demand to a commode.
The above water recovery systems represent central water recovery systems for the entire home that requires a large capital expense to install. And since access to existing plumbing fittings that are under existing fixtures and/or behind existing walls, the retrofitting of a water recovery system into an existing home is very difficult and at least requires the removal of a tub and/or the shower stall. The large number of components and the central system nature of the many of these systems makes them expensive to install and maintain.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.